Immigration Unavailability At Any Time Cannot Be Ruled Out

In times of economic stress, people turn to rituals.  Some finger rosaries or worry beads.  Other folks, as the Wall St. Journal's Sue Shellenbarger reminds us ("Life Stories: Children Find Meaning in Old Family Tales" [3/12/09, p. D1]),  revert to an age-old tradition, the passing on to the next generation of family stories about earlier ancestors suffering and (sometimes) transcending hardship.

In the immigration legal community, we too have our ceremonies.  Every year, invariably as winter turns to spring, we behave ritualistically.  We try to soothe anxious employers and would-be workers from abroad as we prepare their H-1B visa petitions. On the eve of every April Fools Day, we pray or cross our fingers and then consign (to Federal Express and other overnight couriers) precious packages, addressed to USCIS, containing our clients' hopes and dreams of futures soon to be revealed. Just as Boomer males awaited their individual futures in the draft-era lottery,